Test of Character: Riven
by Kikurukina Bal Des'cagel
Summary: Applying to Red Fountain, Riven finds out that some lose ends from his past won't let him go, namely his old mafia family and the emotional baggage he left behind.
1. Chapter 1

**Test of Character: Riven**

Thursday, October 06, 2011

**Disclaimer:** I do not own or profit from the Winx Club.

Applying to Red Fountain, Riven finds out that some lose ends from his past won't let him go, namely his old mafia family and the emotional baggage he left behind.

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><p>The universe is full of crap, this was Riven's belief. People who paint themselves with good intentions are often misled by the idea that peace is attainable if one had a large enough wallet and the weapons to subdue their enemies into surrendering. People who call themselves honest are liars.<p>

Riven would have loved to call himself virtuous but he knew that was not the case. It was just horrible that that was the kind of people Red Fountain was looking for though. He had no allusions that it was a very real possibility that he was not going to get the scholarship unless he lied.

He had next to no money, no notable family or a place to permanently call 'home.' He worked a laborious job at a more than shady business, simply hauling things and making deliveries to other warehouses. There was the occasional side job. So long as he didn't ask questions or talk about his job to anyone, the pay was good and he stayed alive. It was all fine with him.

He had been in Magix for a year. He had vowed that he would never go back to where he had been before that, he would not even remember it.

Riven stepped out of the elevator into a large and long arched hallways. The floors were marble, one side was made of bay windows and the other was lined with outdated metal armours and stone statues. The place was rolling in money and history. And this was only the administration for the medical wing.

He was here for an interview, the infamous Test of Character. He followed the door numbers and name plaques.

W206. Captain D. Laoh, M.D.

Under it was a piece of paper taped to the door requesting applicants to be quiet.

Riven knocked after ascertaining that he was at the right room. The door opened by itself. The wall to the right was made of glass with a door that filtered out the sounds of a labyrinthine administration on the other side; it was like watching a life-size TV. The other side of the room was a solid wall with a thick door that looked blast resistant.

"Come in." A woman, the secretary, sat at a computer typing away furiously. She wore a stiff grey military uniform. She was a commissioned officer from the Magicite Forces Land Force Command. Her grey wedge was right beside her keyboard.

Riven entered.

"Are you here for the interview?"

"Yes."

"Name and application number?"

"Riven Kemp-Kersey. KEMR86101590."

"Thank you. Please take a seat and look at this document. It's a nondisclosure agreement for the interview. Considering the nature of some of our recruits, applicants feel much more comfortable when they sign a document that…shall we say, puts them outside of the reach of the law of Magix during the interview. Read it and sign at the X. The captain should be almost finished."

Riven read the document intently. It was not written in a fashion so diluted that no one could understand it. It was a simple list of bullet points with even simpler sentences.

Riven exhaled heavily. This was not what he was expecting. He was expecting that he had to lie through his teeth but the document was telling him, "No, no, no, we want only the truth. If you've done something unsavoury, we don't mind…for now."

He did not trust it.

He signed the contract anyways. He was going to go with his original plan.

Just then, the door from the hallway opened and a blond man in jeans and a blue button up shirt came in. He wore an unconcealed shoulder holster and smiled somewhat nervously when he sighted Riven as the redhead sighted the gun.

"I'm sorry but I'm going to have to cut the interview for the Prince of Eraklyon short. We have a schedule to follow and you know how it is…"

"They should be done now," the woman said. She got up, politely knocked at the door and opened it. "Sir, the bodyguard has returned. The prince must get going."

Prince? Really? Riven was a little dubious.

There was some murmuring and then a muscled hazel-haired man in black slacks and a pale green silk shirt, stepped out of the office laughing at some joke. His hair was parted to the right with long bangs. The man looked like he could seriously pose a threat to Riven with just sheer strength alone. Those muscles were probably just for the ladies.

There was no way that the scrawny blond guy could protect this prince. What a bunch of crap. People who had money did not need scholarships. Assholes.

The two guys left and the secretary turned to Riven. "Good luck."

Riven entered the captain's office, wary of something unexpected. He was a civilian enrolling straight into a paramilitary academy. It did not happen often. Most of the applicants, Riven saw, were already enlisted in their own military forces. He could not deny how awkward it had been when he had written the philosophical dissertation on Rousseauism. Rousseauism was not the problem, just the fact that he was surrounded by people who were evidently his equal made him extremely aggressive.

"Well, good afternoon. You may just call me Doctor. Just give me a minute to prepare some things," the captain said. He looked tired. Both men took a seat on either sides of a desk.

Riven waited. The doctor cleaned the piles of files that had accumulated on his desk. He finally came upon Riven's file, which was somewhat thinner compared to the others.

"I'm a little scatterbrained today," Laoh began. "Do you mind if I call you Riven? We don't need the 'yessir' formalities with me since you're a civilian. I could also use a break from the tediousness of it."

"Alright."

"Just to confirm some things: you are Riven Kemp-Kersey, you are sixteen years old and you are a graduate ofMerckFrosstUniversity? You are also applying for the Wings Programme, right?"

"Yes."

"You've specified that you have a degree in science. I won't lie to you, I hate how schools never mention the field of study. It's not as if it's a waste of ink. What was your field of study?"

"Aerospace and applied science."

"Makes sense." The doctor was quiet for a long moment and began to haphazardly write notes.

Riven had taken note of the office earlier. It truly looked like a doctor's office than an officer's as it was stocked to the ceiling with medical supplies and books. He was expecting to find a space of wall just devoted to whatever degree this man had earned. He did not find any. Instead, he saw a purple-ribboned medal framed near a poster denoting all the possible emergency scenarios for the academy and the codes for it.

Riven knew very well what the medal was and what kind of price it could fetch legally: a Medal of Sacrifice, the highest medal of military distinction in Magix. Those medals were given almost never. Only thirteen medals had been awarded in the last century.

Riven could not see this doctor meriting the medal. Sure enough, he could see the dedication written under the medal to a Captain D. Laoh.

"So tell me, Riven, you do realise that you are a university graduate at sixteen years of age, right?"

"Yes."

"And you don't see anything wrong with this? I also looked at your thesis from Frosst."

"…I know it's out there."

"Riven, there isn't a problem. Call me 'suspicious' but you must realise that what you've accomplished so far is incredible? I don't mean to say that your degree is fake but it is rare."

"…"

"You have no official military experience but you are academically one of the strongest in the pool."

"…" Riven waited. He was expecting more than just that statement. Most of what Laoh had said was "true."

"You seem be very familiar with certain rifles as well as blades. In particular, you favour smaller arms and you've done splendidly on all the athletics tests. You could use more form but that is nothing practise can fix." The doctor seemed to be skimming the file for his accomplishments. All of them were true. "You have also worked for the Hew family and have done some less than savoury things."

Riven's hands furled into fists. He tried to remain calm. "Where did you hear that?" he feigned innocence.

"Riven, we are Red Fountain. I think you understand very well the nature of some of the things we do here. No lying, no covering it up with another story, please. Tell me, how did it happen?"

Riven kept quiet. Meticulous planning was going to waste and Laoh's lackadaisical attitude was annoying. He thought that he had been careful about cutting his ties. How did they find out? He had been so careful arranging his new identity to seamlessly fit into his persona.

"Riven, you should understand that we don't base your application on a standard of black and white morality. Not everyone is good and we don't force our students to do that. You've heard of the tyrants that we let graduate from this school as well as the heroes. I will not judge you."

The cat was out of the bag. What could he do?

"Riven, I also know that your name is not at all Riven Kemp-Kersey. So far, you've done pretty well in creating your new identity."

Frustrated, Riven said, "What do you want from me?"

"I want to know what you want. I believe that you have come very far in the examinations because you've merited it but that can only count for so much."

"I don't believe that. You obviously want something else from this. Knowing this place, you want dirt on the Family." Riven gritted his teeth. He believed that he was making the worst decision he had ever made in his life.

He was not going to let his past haunt him forever. He had started a new identity and life in order to get away from it.

He stood up and walked away.

Laoh stood up abruptly. "You walk out that door and you are a dead man, Riven."

Riven turned. His brows furled in fury. How dare they! "Is that a threat?"

"No, that is the very simple truth. Did you know that the Hews are looking for a missing boy called Red, Riven? Apparently, they heard that he might have gone to Magix and they have an agent in Magix under the pretence of studying at our female specialist school Themiscyra looking for him."

Riven glared daggers at the doctor.

No…why would they hunt him down? What did he know about the Family?

He knew too much about them.

"You might know her as Blue."

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><p>This is a reinspired rewrite of an old piece called the "Test of Character." You can find it in my profile.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

**Test of Character: Riven**

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

**Disclaimer:** I do not own or profit from the Winx Club.

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><p>Stupid, stupid, stupid!<p>

Riven had fooled himself into thinking that his efforts to get away from his last life were successful. He had clung to an unrealistic hope that starting a new life would be that easy. The new identity he had made for himself was nothing like his old. How could the Family have made the connection between Red and Riven?

He had cornered himself by applying to Red Fountain. He should have just run and run and run. He had done that, but it had only made him tired. He could not live as a vagabond forever. He discovered about himself that he desired those small hints of a normal life, such as sleeping in the same bed every night. What a pathetic weakness!

Riven was about to walk away from an interview that would decide his fate: a scholarship at Red Fountain.

But he could not walk away. Walking away meant dying, and to avoid dying meant running again. He was tired of running. He wanted to stay in Magix. He found that he liked that the city was a mesh of all sorts of people, legit or not.

His interviewer, Dr Laoh as well as Red Fountain, knew who he really was, or what he had been. Inadvertently, he had cornered himself into a clusterfuck of a situation.

He hated it.

Dr Laoh was way too curious about his past, which he did not like. Riven had killed the identity of Red a year ago. He wanted a new life. On the other hand, the Family was out looking for Red in Magix and they had an agent at Themiscyra searching high and low for his ass. He did not want to run again and Red Fountain was holding above his head his chances at a new life in the form of a scholarship.

Blue was the agent's name, according to Laoh.

He could not run forever. He had left loose ends behind. He was not going to run away anymore.

He had to face his past head on.

But with what?

He was only one man against an organisation whose sheer numbers made him pause in awe.

"Why do you want to do this for me? Who is backing you?" Riven asked.

"We believe that you could be an asset to us. You have a lot of potential and the fact that you are a civilian opens many different roads up to you, roads that are quite different from the other men. You owe loyalty to no one and you won't be hindered by this. We will gladly take you as a student, but you need to lose the baggage permanently, that's all."

"So you're doing this in my interest?"

"Yes."

"I don't buy it."

"You truly are paranoid. Do you not believe we are capable of good?"

"Government? I'm not blind. I can see what good those old geezers have done. Brainwashing is not my thing."

"Then are you willing to take your chances out there? Have you the heart to kill your colleagues?"

Riven paused to challenge the other man's stare. "Of course."

"That is a lie. You may be able to kill if you have no relation to the victim, but could you kill with cold blood someone that you have cared for, even for the smallest of seconds? A concern for their safety in the midst of a job? I do not believe that you have it in you to kill your colleagues. Or is the better word 'friends'? They could kill you because you have betrayed them by leaving but I doubt the reversal is possible."

Riven's knuckles were white from clenching his fist so tightly. He turned and walked away.

"One last thing, Riven."

A hard case flew across the room. Riven caught it with easy and opened it.

A gun, three magazines and a black holster. Riven eyed the doctor with suspicion.

"Take it. I am giving this to you as a man. I am not asking you to return it. Just take it. Whatever your decision, you will need it." The doctor looked weary in soul. Genuine worry was painted on his face. Riven was shock to see such sympathy for him.

Riven closed the case. A free gun was a free gun and he would take it. He left the office. A quick inspection showed him that it was in working order and not bugged. It was old, but not an antique. It was an older version of a model he had learnt to use. Outside of Red Fountain, he used the cover of the trees to put on the shoulder holster.

He took the same route home. If the Family had wanted him dead, he would have been dead by then. He would stick to the familiar. Most of his route was in public places where killing him would be difficult. As if waking from a dream, a very nice dream where he was free, he ascended his apartment complex.

His apartment was nothing short of poverty. Most of what he owned fitted inside his backpack. The apartment had already come with a bed and other cheap furnishings. To be blunt, it was just one small room with thin walls. There was a communal bathroom down the hall.

Riven was shocked for the most fleeting of moments to see someone sitting on his bed cum couch. He did not recognise her at first and she did not take advantage of his surprise.

"Blue."

"Red."

"What did you do to your face?"

Embarrassed, she said, "They gave me a nose job to look more generic."

"Aside from the fact that you had broken it so many times?"

"Shut up."

"What's with the hair and clothes?"

"Shut up. They gave it to me so I shouldn't complain. It's better than being naked."

"I never said it was bad, Blue." He enjoyed irritating her still.

"Shut. Up."

"Then make me, Blue. That's why you're here, right?"

Both of them tensed. Blue seethed with rage, he could see. Then she relaxed and looked at his decrepit apartment.

"Come back. They will forgive you. I mean, they will understand."

"No."

"But why? They are all we have, Red. They are the only people who will help us."

"Because we are too scared to help ourselves?"

"They are the ones who found us and adopted us—"

"And then decided to leave my brother for dead on Tartaros. Do you remember that, Blue? How gullible are you? How would you feel if you were left behind?"

Riven was irritated with Blue's naivety. He was thoroughly annoyed at her unwillingness to think for herself. He knew from experience that she could be a formidable opponent, so long as she was told to.

He contemplated his next move as Blue remained quiet.

"…it's all we have," she said.

"That's not good enough," he berated her.

She was not one to tolerate people yelling at her. "Why the fuck are you so selfish all of a sudden?"

"Selfish, Blue? I lost the only family I had."

"Bullshit. Just because you looked alike—"

"We did testing. We are brothers. You never listen, do you?"

She breathed heavily, about to tear up. "Come back home and we can make everything right."

"How? How are you going to make that happen? I am not that stupid to believe that they are so forgiving."

"So that's it?"

"I assume that I am surrounded—"

"Just one last thing."

He watched her fidget with annoyance. "What?"

"You know how the job just kept getting harder and harder, like they knew why we were in Tartaros? Gray, he was a mole. He sold info to the Company but Silver found out and shot him. I just thought you should know that. I'm leaving now. I'll be back in a week for an answer."

Blue got up, skirted Riven with her eyes lowered and left.

In less than five minutes, he had everything he needed in his backpack and left the apartment. He wandered the streets of Magix. He was under no illusion that he was not being followed. They would not let him out of their sight so easily nor would they attack him without much preparation. He was betting that the lost of one agent was bad enough, but two would be a nightmare.

He was unsettled by Blue's new bit of information. She picked at something he wished would stay dead. He did not want to go back to one year ago. He did not want to re-evaluate what had happened. He was immeasurably troubled. A part of him wanted to reject Blue's words but they had ringed true to his memories.

He was not necessarily going anywhere despite his backpack. He was just holding it in the chance that he truly needed to run.

He kept to crowded places, knowing that it would annoy his stalkers.

He stopped at a café where the soft croon of jazz played. He toying with the edge of the witch ghettos of Magix but he was not one to venture into such treacherous territory. He could see the nocturnal supernatural creatures mingle among themselves in the café. He was wary of them but he had a peculiar curiosity for them. He understood that he should not underestimate their mysterious powers but he had never observed their powers before.

"Hey hottie, what are you looking at?"

Before he could understand what had happened, a pair of mesmerising golden eyes stared at him intently. Then he saw her cascading coppery hair, glowing skin and pink lips. Then he felt the booted leg that was brushing against his.

She was faster than he could perceive her and Riven was on his guard immediately. Was she from Red Fountain or the Hews?

She drank from her iced coffee leisurely and drew circles on the table with the humidity from her cold drink.

"My name is Spica." She smiled at him, looking at his face intently. She reached for him across the table and he caught her wrist in a death grip.

"Who sent you?"

"Calm down, now…" she purred.

"Who sent you, Spica?" he insisted.

"You don't need to worry about that, Riven. I am here to help you. You look like you could use some sleep. And a haircut."

"Who sent you, Spica?"

"Can you find something else to say, Riven? And if you must know so badly, I am Spica, the Fairy of Cats, the Guardian of Travelers and the many other things."

Riven looked for signs of drug-use. He had never met a fairy or a witch and he was not keen on knowing one now. He understood that they had powers beyond his understanding. He had seen witches do horrible things on jobs. He had heard of fairies that had sabotaged other jobs.

"You don't believe me at all, do you?"

"No."

"I understand. Want to see some real magic, hmm?"

"Spica, I think that you should leave. I'm not someone you want to hang out with." Riven was disturbed by her drunk-like behaviour.

"You mean those tails of yours? Come with me."

Riven jumped in his seat. She knew, or worst, they, the witches, knew.

"No," he said rapidly. He was not going to get other people, especially witches and fairies, involved.

"Yes, come. Come with me to the ghettos. They won't be able to follow you where magic rules."

"Leave me alone, Spica, or else you will get hurt."

For a moment, he thought he heard her make an impossible sound: the quiet roar of displeasure of a lioness. Her stare was unnerving. Her large golden eyes made him feel like a prey.

"Then why are you toying with the edge of the ghettos? Are you tempting the ire of the witches? We know you are here and we want to know why. We don't like the fact that you have tails," she purred dangerously.

A waiter set a bowl of soup down before Spica. Her large eyes left him and turned to the soup with the same speed that a cat chooses to stop killing and start playing. It was steaming and she burnt her tongue tasting it. Displeased, she pouted.

"I don't understand why soup has to be so hot."

She stirred it with a spoon and let go.

Riven swallowed.

The spoon stirred the soup by itself.

Fuck.

Magic.

What did they want with him?


End file.
